[Pak Daily Times] Up to 12,000 Afghan Taliban fighters have been killed, maimed or captured this year, according to a UN report, which said violence in the wartorn nation was at a three-year high.| Hurrah! |
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
forces are to withdraw the bulk of their 75,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year after 13 years fighting the Taliban.
The paper for the UN Security Council warned that the bad boys' homemade bombs, which accounted for 80 percent of casualties among Afghan cops, were becoming increasingly sophisticated.
A particular concern was Afghanistan's developing mining industry, which uses large quantities of high explosives and detonating equipment.
The report warned that the Afghan authorities must strengthen regulatory measures to stop these explosives falling into the hands of the bad boys.
Afghan tribal elders are to meet for a grand assembly or "loya jigra" on Thursday to decide on the future of US troops in the country after 2014.
A similar deal between the US and Iraq collapsed, leading to a complete pullout of American forces and there are fears a repeat in Afghanistan could lead to chaos and violence if local forces are unable to cope with the Taliban.
The UN report said the government of President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
was facing "elevated levels of violence not seen since 2010".
Despite this, the report said, the Taliban had not made major gains or won significant popular support, and had suffered substantial losses.
"Losses on the bad boy side are difficult to estimate, but government sources and Taliban internal statistics alike estimate them at between 10,000 and 12,000," the report said.
A UN official clarified that "losses" include killed, maimed and captured Taliban. There was no independent confirmation of the figures and NATO does not give casualty counts for the Taliban.
Afghanistan has substantial mineral deposits -- up to $1 trillion worth according to a US survey -- and this wealth is seen as key to the country's prosperity after more than 30 years of war.
The report, submitted to the UN Security Council's committee on sanctions, called for a better regulatory framework for mining explosives and detonators to stop them being misused by the Taliban.